Budget Cuts to Corrections Accelerate Path to Tragedy

LANSING, Mich., July 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Last week the State Legislature passed the Department of Corrections Budget with approximately $50M in cuts. These cuts will come in many forms however the one that sounds the greatest alarm -- for officers, prisoners, and the community at large -- is a reduction in staff to a prison system already strained by short-staffing and rife with violence. "The Department's plans to eliminate two positions per facility statewide will put another hole in the 'wall' we form when we walk those blocks every day," states Michigan Corrections Organization President Tom Tylutki who represents the state's corrections and forensic security officers. There are almost 1,000 fewer corrections officers on the job today than 6 years ago with the same number of inmates. And during that time, the... [read full story]